Author: ALJAZEERA

French leader denies inviting tech founder to France or having prior knowledge of his visit.French President Emmanuel Macron has defended a decision to grant fast-track citizenship to indicted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Speaking at a news conference during a visit to Serbia, Macron said that granting nationality to high-profile figures who learn French and contribute to the nation is “good for our country”. “It’s part of a strategy to allow women and men, whether artists, athletes or entrepreneurs, when they make the effort to learn the French language and that they develop wealth, innovation … to be given French nationality,”…

Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes says platform faces ban unless Musk names legal representative within 24 hours.Brazil’s top court has threatened to ban X unless its billionaire owner Elon Musk names a legal representative in the Latin American country within 24 hours. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said in an order made public on Wednesday that failure to appoint a legal representative could result in the “suspension of the social network’s activities”. The order is the latest development in a months-long feud between Musk and de Moraes, who has led a crackdown on alleged misinformation and disinformation in…

In the war for control of the internet, the potential significance of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest is difficult to overstate. At the heart of French authorities’ case against the Russian-born billionaire is an enormously consequential question: are online platforms legally responsible for the speech of their users? Prosecutors say Durov was detained as part of an investigation involving 12 criminal allegations, most of them related to “complicity” in serious crimes ranging from drug trafficking to the distribution of child sex abuse material. While governments around the world have for years sought to exert greater control over online…

Education minister says enrolments to be limited to 270,000 in 2025 in bid to create ‘a better and a fairer system’.Australia has announced a cap on the number of international students amid growing public discontent over rising housing costs. Education Minister Jason Clare said on Tuesday that enrolments at publicly funded universities and vocational institutions would be limited to 270,000 in 2025 as part of efforts to create “a better and a fairer system”. “What this means is next year there will be about the same number of international students starting a course here as there were before the pandemic,”…

Trade watchdog says company misled customers about origin of butter used in ‘100 percent pure New Zealand’ products.A New Zealand dairy company has been fined 420,000 New Zealand dollars ($261,452) for using imported Indian butter in products labelled as locally produced. New Zealand’s Commerce Commission said on Monday that Milkio Foods Limited misled customers about the origin of the butter used in its “100 percent pure New Zealand” ghee products. Milkio, based in Hamilton, admitted to 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act through false representations as well as unauthorised use of the FernMark logo, which is used to identify…

Fast rise in prices led the Fed to increase its benchmark policy rate from near zero to the highest range in a quarter of a century.United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has offered an explicit endorsement of interest rate cuts, saying further cooling in the job market would be unwelcome and expressing confidence that inflation is within reach of the central bank’s 2 percent target. “The upside risks to inflation have diminished. And the downside risks to employment have increased,” Powell said on Friday in a highly anticipated speech at the Fed’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “The…

The union representing workers at the Canadian National Railway (CN) says they will strike next week, in a new threat to the economy after promising to challenge a government decision to end an unprecedented rail stoppage. The Teamsters union filed notice on Friday, just days after returning to work, that conductors, locomotive engineers and other workers at Montreal-based CN would strike on Monday. The announcement is the latest twist in a labour dispute at Canada’s top two railroads, which locked out more than 9,000 unionised workers on Thursday, triggering a simultaneous rail stoppage that business groups said could inflict hundreds…

Ireland has been called the most pro-Palestinian country in Europe. So this might surprise you: at the same time – largely under the radar – it has been playing a pivotal role in connecting businesses in illegal Israeli settlements with consumers around the world. Take the case of Etsy, the popular platform for more “ethical” artisanal and vintage shopping online. The company’s business outside the Americas is handled by its Irish subsidiary. This business includes hosting dozens of shops that explicitly list illegal settlements as their locations (as documented in a recent investigative report I worked on). Etsy has a big Dublin…

Move comes weeks after Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was sworn into office following the collapse of the previous government.Nepal has lifted its ban on TikTok less than a year after blocking the Chinese-owned application out of its stated concern for “social harmony”. Minister for Communication and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung announced the decision on Thursday following a cabinet meeting. The move comes after Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, who was sworn in last month after the collapse of the previous coalition government, issued a directive calling for the equal treatment of all social networking platforms, state-run…

Deir el-Balah, Gaza – Like a scene from an endless horror movie, new orders for evacuations were issued on Wednesday morning for residential areas in Deir el-Balah. “Every day brings a new catastrophe,” we despaired as we studied the latest Israeli map, its lines now looming dangerously close to our home. The sounds of tanks grew louder, and the crack of gunfire echoed nearer. A question has haunted us, and everyone in Gaza, for more than 320 days of war. The question we ask the world but never get an answer: “Where should we go?” A question echoing in the…